Sermon Tone Analysis

I. Desire is a an Extension of God’s goodness to us

It is good to desire

But desires must submit to God and his commands

II.

Sin is not just what we do, but it starts in affecting these God-given desires

Now we are enslaved to adverse desires

Which produces sin, which leads to death

III.

The Promise of Christ is that sins are forgiven and we are set free from adverse desires to have godly desire

Tomorrow, we will see how God keeps those fleshly desires in his renewed saint that has renewed desires

So that there will be a battle between the two

And in that victory over that battle comes

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You will not die, but rather a positive will be added to you

You shall know more and be like him (what he fell to)

This promise that sin actually provides freedom and life is the same deception Satan pushes after sin and the death of humanity....it’s the deception that keeps humans hooked

And indeed, something was added to them in this course of action

They could see that they were naked.

This new knowledge was driven and enforced by sin

And so, this half truth of knowing more is dominated by sin and is a most terrible enslavement, even as it still promises freedom and happiness and desirability

You shall be like God

Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers

Rather, as God, as Elohim himself, in the particular quality of knowing good and evil.

It was a high bait which the tempter offered; and Eve, who at first had answered rightly, and who as yet knew nothing of falsehood, dallied with the temptation, and was lost.

But we must not comment too severely upon her conduct.

It was no mean desire which led her astray: she longed for more knowledge and greater perfection; she wished even to rise above the level of her nature; but the means she used were in violation of God’s command, and so she fell.

And, as usual, the tempter kept the promise to the ear.

Eve knew good and evil, but only by feeling evil within herself.

It was by moral degradation, and not by intellectual insight, that her ambitious wish was fulfilled.

Man was meant to desire a greater relationship with God and know him more

But Satan twists it to pursue it in a means not ordained by God

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Theme of Psalms is right worship

Connected with that is desire and pleasure

Desire and pleasure can have negative connotation

“A puritan is someone with the ability to know that someone somewhere is having fun”

But this is only so because Satan like the liberals of today takes a word and twists it completely

The novel 1984 became popular again over the past few years because of the different issues going on in our current culture

In the book, the authoritarian government is doing away with standard English called Oldspeak and making a new language called Newspeak.

And this new language takes words and makes it fitting for their political agenda

We have seen the leftists do that in our own day, words we know and celebrate are being turn to mean something else like

Justice, inclusiveness, love, gender, and the list goes on

Such a tactic is not new, but is something that Satan has done from the very beginning

(now you might be thinking, are you calling the leftist ideology satanic and the answer is of course I am)

But Satan has been doing this from the very beginning, he rules by lies and he uses desires and pleasures to lure his victims

But we must understand that desires and pleasures was created by God and to be enjoyed by us

God is all powerful and good

He created all things in power, but has done it in a way to be enjoyed (good)

For example, in power he has made it possible for you to get strength and life from eating lunch today

BUT not only this, it is going to taste good!

It will be pleasurable.

Especially if you eat here…which you should

Let’s run through the creation account real quick

1:3 Light was good

1:10 The dry land and the Sea were good

1:12 The vegetation and fruit produced were good

1:18 The sun to give light to the earth during the day and the moon at night were good

1:21 The creation of fish in the sea was good

1:25 It was good when God created the living creatures on the land to creep around the earth

1:31 God creates man and puts him in this good creation and calls it very good

It reminds me of when I was making a coop for chickens and ducks, and each part of it I created to sustain the life of the flock and it was good for that end

And when I finally got finished and saw the little chickens running around the coop enjoying life, I saw that it was now very good

Thus, God made all things good, and when he places us in his creation to enjoy his good creation this is called very good

Look at what the Scriptures say when God placed Adam in the garden:

What was around Adam was a manifestation of the goodness of God to man…a whole creation for us to have life in AND enjoy (pleasant to the sight and good for food)!

For our desires to be had in the goodness of what God has given and for our desires to be met

So, not only has God created in power, but in goodness.

That means he created you with a capacity to desire the goodness and find pleasure in that goodness…in fact doing so is for your good and his glory

Does that mean what God wants you to do is to follow all the desires that are in your heart today?

Go ahead and tell your toddler to do whatever his heart desires and find pleasure...

Why not if God has made us to desire and to find pleasure in meeting that desire in his creation?

The Fall and the adverse desire Satan tempted Eve with

Let’s zoom in right at the temptation and fall

The tree was good!

Echoing back to how God made everything good and desirable

It was delightful to the eyes

Desirable to make one wise

(so far desire in God’s world is good, but not here, with temptation from Satan it becomes bad)

This desire is an abuse of something good of itself, in disobedience to God

God has said not to eat of this tree or you’ll die

Satan temps Eve by saying God just doesn’t want you to do it because then your eyes will be opened and you’ll be like God KNOWING good and Evil

So now that desire to be wise is anchored not in a desire from God, but from disobedience to God

And this conterfeit desire by Satan is typical of the desires and pleasures he offers you today…what you have is never enough, you should be disatisifed with that, and desire more

This makes it impossible to find pleasure in the simple things God provides, and makes you lust for more

Look at a young child, his desires are simple and finds pleasure in everything

She and Adam act on this disobedient desire

And their eyes are opened alright…but not quite to the fulfillment of the desire Satan had placed with a lie

They now know more about evil, but it was not in a way that God knows evil while he is separated from it

They know it as being in it, and now they are overwhelmed with sin to the point of being ashamed

Godly Desire: Desire rooted in obedience to God.

And it always delivers what it promises: pleasure and joy

This was the original state of humankind

Godless Desire: Desires rooted in disobedience, promises the same thing but never delivers, but only brings death

humankind has been stuck in this lie as Satan runs this new world order

What is the nature of this Godless desire?

You desire SIN now, and SIN desires you

Now that sin has entered, there is a guarantee that your desire will be contrary to godly desire

Now, being fallen in sin, our natural desires are captive to what is godless

What compounds the issue: Not only do you have a desire for sin, but sin has a desire for you, and it is not for your good

Cain is angry because God liked Abel’s sacrifice but not his

Sin is crouching—it is sneaky and works by deceit

And to not fall into death, man must rule over it like a king ruling over a bunch of unruly subjects